Five years on, Türkiye remembers Eren Bulbul, 15-year-old boy killed by PKK terrorists

Türkiye remembers Eren Bulbul, a 15-year-old boy who was killed by PKK terrorists on Aug. 11, 2017, in Macka, a town 22 kilometers (14 miles) south of the Black Sea city of Trabzon.

Eren Bulbul died from wounds sustained as he helped gendarmes track PKK terrorists.

Gendarmerie Master Sgt. Ferhat Gedik, 41, was injured in the same incident, trying to protect the boy and also died the same day.

The killing of the young boy by the PKK terrorist group led to a public outcry, as locals and citizens around the country hoisted flags from balconies and chanted slogans condemning the terrorist group.

Since the killing, politicians, artists, businessmen, NGOs, sports clubs, and citizens from everywhere in Türkiye have poured in condolence messages and every year, Eren Bulbul is remembered with commemorative events around the country.

On Twitter, thousands of Turkish people posted messages commemorating Eren with the hashtag #iyikivarsınEren (means 'glad to have you' in Turkish).

Civilian massacres

The group carried out its first terror attack on Aug. 15, 1984, when it attacked two gendarmerie outposts in the southeastern provinces Hakkari and Siirt.

In January 1987, PKK terrorists attacked a wedding party in the village of Ortabag in the southeastern province of Sirnak, killing eight people, including two children and four women.

The following day, 10 people, including two babies, were killed in Gundukorte, a town in Mardin province, by the PKK.

The civilian death toll mounted in the following months and years.
In March 1987, six children were among eight people shot dead in Acikyol, Mardin.

In the notorious Pinarcik massacre, 30 people -- 16 of them children and six women -- were killed in a PKK attack on the village in Mardin.

The next month, simultaneous attacks on two neighboring villages in Mardin – Haraberk and Pecenek -- left 25 dead, including seven children.
September 1987 saw another mass killing at Ciftekavak, a village in Sirnak province, where four children and five women, including two expectant mothers, were killed alongside two men from the same family.

Thirteen men, women and children were killed the following month in Cobandere, Sirnak.

In the 1990s, the PKK began targeting cities and in July 1998, seven people were killed in a bombing at Istanbul's Spice Bazaar.

In May 2016, 16 people were killed when an explosive-laden vehicle was detonated in the Yenisehir district of Bingol province.